The present invention relates to photonics chips and, more specifically, to structures for an electro-optic modulator and methods of fabricating a structure for an electro-optic modulator.
Photonics chips are used in many applications and systems including, but not limited to, data communication systems and data computation systems. A photonics chip integrates optical components, such as waveguides, optical switches, and bends, and electronic components, such as field-effect transistors, into a unified platform. Among other factors, layout area, cost, and operational overhead may be reduced by the integration of both types of components.
An electro-optic modulator used as an optical switch to selectively route an arriving optical signal from an input to a destination output without converting the optical signal to an electrical signal. For example, through the modulation, the selective routing can be utilized to convert a continuous optical signal into an encoded data stream. One type of optical switch is a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulator. A disadvantage of this type of switching is that MZI modulators exhibit a weak electro-optic effect and, for that reason, MZI modulators must have a large form factor that results in a large footprint on the photonics chip. During operation, MZI modulators also tend to consume large amounts of power. Hence, MZI modulators may adversely impact both the layout area and the operational overhead of a photonics chip.
Improved structures for an electro-optic modulator and methods of fabricating a structure for an electro-optic modulator are needed.